


On the hunt for a decent Birthday

by Soupreme



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Happy Birthday Mari!, Light Angst, Scavenger Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24710575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soupreme/pseuds/Soupreme
Summary: Mari's birthday didn't go as planned and it gets even worse when she wakes up. A surprise, however, gives her hope that her Birthday may turn itself around after all.
Relationships: Matsuura Kanan/Ohara Mari
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	On the hunt for a decent Birthday

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep*

Mari slept her phone alarm at her bedside. Sleep was still in her eyes and the sun shone through her light see-through curtains and into her room, illuminating her rather unflattering morning complexion.

This was the 4th time her alarm had gone off, but she couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed. It was Saturday, why not sleep in? She worked hard during the week. At least that's what she told herself anyway. No, she knew deep down her mood just wasn’t going to be there today, likely correlated to her birthday yesterday coming, and subsequently going with little to no fanfare

The unkempt blonde stretched her body out under the cozy covers of her bed and lazily unlocked her phone. No notifications. Just as she thought. She dropped the phone back on her end table and wriggled her way back under the covers, wishing she could just forget she existed.

Dia had wished her a rather brief happy birthday the day prior, before promptly hurrying back to her student council duties. The depression hit her like a brick wall however, as not a single other friend reached out to her, via text or coming up to her in class during the day. She never even saw the rest of the Aqours members at all. That is until after school, where Yoshiko had forgotten entirely.

“One person? Sure. But all of my friends?? They can’t all be too busy to even shoot me a text with a cake emoji! Even Kanan...especially Kanan...nothing…” Mari sat up and threw her pillow angrily across the room, almost sniping her, make-up dresser in the process.

She had wallowed in self-pity long enough. Even if she was going to be in a bad mood, the promised arrival of her parents back in Uchiura today could put a spring in her depressingly damp step right now. She hadn't seen them in so long it would be nice to catch up! Even it was only for a day, as they kept themselves typically rather busy this time of year. At the very least, they were good for a depressing thousand dollar birthday cheque every year at least.

She quickly brushed her hair and wove her braid, followed by a very lazy attempt at her hair loop making it weirdly large. She pulled on of a light sundress over her head and some white tights over her legs, making Mari fit enough for herself to greet her parents at the minimum. It wasn't the most gorgeous she had ever looked, but it'd have to do for how much she cared right now.

“Deep breaths Mari.” She whispered under her breath to herself. “Today is a new day! Belated birthday wishes are just as good after all! Surely it was just a case of teenage forgetfulness, nothing more.”

The self pep talk did little to improve her mood. By the time she had made it halfway down the numerous flights of stairs and into the hotel lobby, the despair had already washed back over her like a cold wet blanket after seeing the throngs of people and no parents in sight.

The Ohara Hotel lobby was as bustling as ever, person after person either in line to speak to the clerk, or middling about speaking in small groups amongst each other. She figured she had better ask the clerk. Otherwise, she might be here all day meandering around waiting for her parents to show up.

“Excuse me, you haven’t happened to see my mama or papa come in today and ask for me have you?” Mari asked the clerk behind the desk in as upstanding a tone as she could muster given her morning grievances.

“My deepest apologies Ms. Ohara, but your mother has come, and since left, citing an important business meeting with a client taking higher priority today. As for your father, he too regrettably had to cancel, his flight having been rescheduled due to an electrical error.” 

Tears welled in her eyes as if she had just been punched in the gut several times, sniffling and fighting desperately the urge to fall to her knees and cry in front of all these people. They had been planning this day for weeks, months even! Her father couldn’t have spun a different flight together on one of his other private jets? Her mother couldn’t have had this meeting later today, waiting long enough to for lunch with her daughter on her god damned birthday?!

She didn’t bother asking, she knew she would just lose her temper with the receptionist and he wouldn’t be able to change anything regardless. With a simple thanks to the man at the counter, the hotel patrons concerned stares followed her out the elegant glass double doors of the Ohara hotel building.

She felt like she was going to be sick. It was such a sun-shiny day in Uchiura, but it may as well be pouring rain in her head. Her cheeks reflected that mindset, now stained with her tears as she silently cried, trying not to draw too many eyes on her as she made her way through the parking lot and down to the boat dock by the ocean.

It's where she always went when things weren’t going her way in life. Like a tiny safe haven where it could be just her thoughts and the sea to accompany her.

The dock was warm on her thighs, the water cold on her feet. She hadn’t even put shoes on in her haste to escape her anger. The calm rush of the icy saltwater sea against her legs almost dissipated her rage entirely. Almost. The downside was that the sad hole in her heart still remained from the shotgun blast her parents and friends had shot through it.

“This is the worst birthday ever.” She mumbled, kicking the water aimlessly in front of her. “I wish I hadn't even woke up today. What kind of friends ignore birthdays entirely?! At least Dia was there for me, barely..." She trailed off with a deep and heavy sigh.

Her servants never forgot, and they brought her an excellent dinner the night of her birthday, as they did every year. But their sentiments rang hollow. She didn’t know any of them. It was their job to make her feel special, their parents were literally paying them to do so. Her friends, and more importantly her parents, should be different. And yet here she was, lamenting their supposed forgetfulness all alone with her foggy and depressing thoughts.

This wasn’t doing her any good, her aimless thinking was doing nothing but angering her all over again. But just as she went to stand up a floating object wrapped around the dock caught her eye. Upon further inspection, it was a tiny dolphin bath toy, attached via a sparkly string and left to bob in the water. It was cute and in remarkable condition. Someone clearly had left this here intentionally.

“You lost little fella? Were you left here for me perhaps?” Mari cooed to the tiny inanimate object. Sure enough, attached in a tiny bag to the dolphin’s tail was a note on a crude piece of paper, with the words ‘train station’ scrawled across it in orange marker. Excitement abounded inside her, was this some kind of scavenger hunt? For her?? 

She got up quickly, even if this wasn’t intended for her it was definitely something to do on a Saturday where she would otherwise shutter the windows to her room and down as much ice cream as she could in solitude. Quickly she ran back to her hotel, leaving the dolphin tied back on the dock in case this was just a big mistake. She was going to need a pair of shoes if she was going to find out one way or the other. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The automatic doors to the train station whizzed shut behind her. This place was even more packed than her hotel’s foyer, how on earth was she even supposed to find another clue here, if there even was one. 

Train after train zoomed by, with Mari aimlessly walking around through crowds boarding trains, looking totally lost. She was surprised no one asked her if she needed assistance with anything, hell maybe the help would be nice if it could get her to find whatever it was she was looking for.

“Ah-ha!” She exclaimed as crowd dissipating onto the train finally created space enough to reveal her hidden treasure: yet another dolphin, relaxing underneath a bench next to one of the blinking terminals. She knelt down, immediately regretting doing so as the flood around her was putridly dirty. 

But despite its nasty location, the dolphin was hers and with it came yet another note. This time, it was written on a fancy piece of gold-trimmed paper. Mari recognized it instantly as the stationery used by the Ohara hotel chain. Who would even have access to this except patrons of her hotel, or her friends? She had to find out where these lead. 

“Numazu shopping center.” She read her note aloud, pondering how she would ever find such a small item in the gargantuan store district of Numazu. “No doubt these must be for me...I have to keep looking!” With an emphatic fist pump she ran into the direction of the mall. Who knows, maybe she could even do a little ‘retail therapy’ while she hunted.

Her arduous search continued. Each of her subsequent hidden dolphins became increasingly more time consuming to find. In the shopping center, after casing almost every store inside, it was hanging off the sign to one of Mari’s favorite coffee shops, so high she had to ask the clerk inside embarrassingly for a step stool to get it.

After that, she wound up heading to the aquarium. Normally she would happily gawk at the sea creatures majestically frolicking in their respective habitats, but today she only felt annoyance as she had to scour the entire building, only for her prize to turn up in the gift shop at the end. What a pain. A pink dolphin hung up with the blue ones, very subtly with Mari written in big blue capital letters across it as to not be overlooked by its intended target.

Following the next note took her to the school grounds, where thankfully it specified that it would be by the sports field. She could have been searching that school all day, at least the field was relatively small. Eventually, after running more than a few laps, she spotted the tiny sea creature on the rim of the basketball hoop. A few embarrassing misses with shots from a basketball later, she grabbed it and walked off school grounds, making sure to lock the gate behind her. 

As two o'clock turned to three o'clock and then turned to four o'clock, she wondered if she would ever see the end of this charade. She was sweating to death from all this running around and her legs were killing her and now she was being led into the forest near Kanan’s diving shop! Her drive was waning quickly but she pressed on, determined to get to the end of this once and for all.

The treeline next to her diving shop had an established, tree-lined pathway leading up the mountainside. According to her clue, it would be somewhere off the beaten path, so naturally, she slowly made her way up the winding trail keeping her eyes peeled for any suspicious parts in the brush.

The shady overgrowth of the trees above her was a lovely reprieve from the harsh heat of the she’d been running around in all day, but her feet were killing her, and she knew this trail was indeed long. Her and Kanan walked it a lot when they were working out, so her energy would be surely at an all time low by the time she found her goal.

Mari approached the end of the path and thankfully after around 20 minutes of brisk walking, she finally stumbled upon a rather obvious cleared path through the trees. 

“I swear to god there had better be a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow or I am going to scream.” She said, her patience clearly running low. The sticks and branches catching on her dress every foot or so weren’t helping, and almost tripping over tree branches several times almost made her turn right around.

But then, a voice called out to her.

“Mari! I see you, Mari, Hey! Over here!”

It was Kanan, at long last. Her blue-haired classmate was sitting in a large man-made clearing in a lawn chair, a big picnic blanket splayed out in front of her as she waved her arms, flagging her over with a hearty smile.

“Not exactly the best hiking outfit, don’t you think?” She quipped as Mari rather ungracefully stepped out of the forest.

“K-Kanan? Why are you here? Are you searching for them as well?”

“Searching for what? Oh, you mean these?” She presented a checkered patterned dolphin in her right palm, presumably the last in the line. “Cute huh? I'm so glad you deciphered my scavenger to meet me here!”

Kanan’s rather sanguine attitude was getting on her nerves. Was she unaware of the feelings she had, purposefully or not, forced her to feel over the last 48 hours?

“So if you have that then...does that mean all these little guys were placed by you then Kanan?” Her voice stuttered, half out of anger and half out of relief to finally have some closure.

“Of course, could you not tell? I thought it was pretty obvious what with the whole dolphin motif and the usage of the Ohara stationary.”

“But...why? Where have you been these last few days, why are you leading me on cryptic hunts instead of just messaging me like a normal person?! Do you know how sad I’ve been thinking about everyone purposefully ignoring me?!” Her tone was growing fierce, Kanan’s mere presence now reminding her of why she was so heated when she woke up today.

“Calm Mari, Calm. Did you really think I'd forget your birthday after all these years? You know me better than that! I was gone from school yesterday because I had to set all this up.” 

But Mari held her ground. Despite Kanan’s clearly good intentions, she wanted an explanation still for all of this and she was going nowhere until she got it. 

“I know you’re mad, and i'm sorry Mari. But i wanted to make your birthday special this year!” She remorsefully looked down at the ground. “I know your parents only ever give you money, and your servants just do what they’re told, so I figured i’d do something a little fun this year instead of just buying you another picture frame yet again. Maybe I should have joined and searched with you...but I thought this could be a fun surprise to make your birthday special this year.”

  
  
  


After her explanation finished, the blonde's heart stuttered. Her hand hovered over her chest, a feeble attempt to still the pounding inside it. How could she have been so naive? Thinking about it now, Kanan must have put a lot of work into this, with her being the supposed prize at the end. She felt the tears start-up in her eyes once again. 

“Oh, Kanan...I never should have doubted you!” She dashed over, almost knocking her out of her chair with the force of the hug she gave. Kanan just laughed and wrapped her arms around the girl groveling in her lap.

“Don’t mention it, my plan got you here and that makes it all worth it!” 

Mari didn’t want to let go, she was savoring the moment in a loving embrace. Kanan hugs were always so satisfying to her, but man this one was really hitting the spot. Almost like she was sucking the despair directly from her soul.

However, the heat was getting to both of them, so they mutually broke their extended hugging session and Mari finally took her seat next to Kanan. She pulled the basket around to the blanket in front of them. Inside was a myriad of goods. Handmade Sandwiches, slices of watermelon, a box of cookies, even a couple of thermoses with some drinks inside. She had really outdone herself.

“Now Mari, I know you’re not going to make me eat all this food I prepared for us myself right? This is your reward for your excellent sleuthing after all.”

“Kanan, I'm speechless. You really are something you know that? How am I ever going to thank you for being such a special friend?”

“Oh who knows, let's just start by celebrating your birthday juuuust a little late with a nice picnic, okay?”

Kanan was right, and Mari happily took her offer, reaching in snatching herself a glistening slice of melon. Kanan did the same, taking a sandwich slice in her other hand and leaning back now that the situation had relaxed significantly.

The wind whistled through the trees, and the horizon setting sunbathed their tiny clearing in a gorgeous orange hue. Mari shared her perilous adventures around Uchiura with her, while Kanan retorted with stories of setting the entire plan into motion, all while the two of them relaxed and enjoyed the feast Kanan had prepared. Pure bliss.

A pause in conversation let Mari really take in the events of the day. Staring at Kanan now as she chowed down on another melon slice. How could someone be so perfect? Totally reversing her mood and entirely eliminating the disappointment caused by not only her parents but herself as well. She was like a magician with access to her heartstrings. 

“Come on Mari! This is great and all but we can’t laze around too long if we want to make the party later.” Kanan chirped, winking at her as she took a sip from her thermos.

“I assume that’s what the Aqours girls have been up too huh? No wonder Dia was so fishy yesterday. You know Kanan an invitation would be nice next time. I might have picked something nicer to wear.” 

“Well, I think you look stunning. Besides...I brought deodorant with me if you need some.”

The girls chuckled and packed up their picnic. Kanan grabbed her folding chairs and motioned with her head to follow. Mari couldn’t wait. She wanted to be whisked away to wherever Kanan had planned next.

"God, what an amazing birthday this turned out to be after all."

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I wrote for Mari Ohara's Birthday on June 12th 2020 :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy it, KananMari will never cease to make my heart swell when I write it. God bless.


End file.
